In a couple of days it will be the deadline for many Canadians to submit their 2016 income tax return. I just did mine. Even though mine is simple I still waited until today to do it. Every year I say around February or so that I'll do it early this year. But of course I don't. So I probably shouldn't bother saying so next year.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Did you watch last night's Blue Jays/Angels game? Did you watch it all the way to the end? If you're a Jays fan the payoff was worth it, but getting there was quite the task. Of course it was easier for those of us on the west side of the country, since it was only 8 PM or earlier when it started. I imagine a lot of viewers in Ontario and east jumped ship pretty early, even if today is a Saturday, when they might sleep in. Given some of what happened last night I wouldn't be surprised if the management in Buffalo got some very early phone calls today. And hopefully today's game, besides being another Jays win, will be considerably shorter.

Monday, April 17, 2017

This morning I visited one of the local Dollarama stores. I noticed that they had some CDs, and took a quick look. There was nothing I wanted to buy, but one did attract my attention. It was a karaoke CD of religious songs. That's a bit odd. Even more unusual was the cover art, which consisted of a young woman, drawn in an anime/manga style. Not quite the combo you might expect.

But then again maybe you would. Christianity and anime have met in the past. Japanese animation firm Tatsunoko Productions collaborated with the US Christian Broadcast Network in the early '80s on Superbook, a series of cartoon adventures based on the Old and New Testament. At the same time they also produced a series called The Flying House, which also used Biblical materials as the plots for its episodes. Some years later Osamu Tezuka, revered as one of the giants of anime and manga, created In the Beginning: The Bible Stories, an anime series that told the stories of the Old Testament. It was co-production with Nippon TV and the Italian government broadcaster RAI. It was one of Tezuka's last projects before his death of cancer in 1989, and was not completed until after his death.

Sunday, April 09, 2017

Just before midnight on Friday Saskatoon police were called to a break and enter at a garage on Cairns Avenue. Although the suspect had left before they arrived the K9 unit soon tracked him down. He was arrested and found to be carrying a firearm, switchblade, and crystal meth. None of these by themselves are unusual, but the firearm he was carrying was. Police say it was a 7.65 mm Skorpion machine pistol.

The Skorpion was a product of the Cold War era Czechoslovak arms industry, a weapon that could be carried in a holster, but capable of fully automatic fire. It was intended for use by special units, vehicle crews, and others who needed a weapon more compact than a rifle, but with more firepower than a standard pistol. It also reflected the Czechoslovak military's willingness to go its own way with weapons, not being a Soviet design and using a non Warsaw Pact caliber, 7.65 mm, aka .32 ACP.

The actual utility of such very compact automatic firearms has always been questioned. They're bulkier than a standard pistol, yet their small size makes them hard to control on fully automatic. Most people they've been issued to don't get the practice time to learn to use them effectively. But the Skorpion proved popular, seeing a lot of export sales, including ending up in the hands of European terrorist groups like the Italian Red Brigades.

So where did the one seized early Saturday come from? If it was one of the full auto originals it's a prohibited weapon in Canada, never sold legally, and not something you'd expect a street crook in Saskatoon to get his hands on in 2017. On the other hand semi automatic only versions of the Skorpion have been produced for the civilian gun market, and apparently they have been sold in Canada as a restricted firearm. So if it's one of those it was either stolen from someone in Canada, or imported illegally from the US, where they are also legal.

Friday, April 07, 2017

A rain shower passed through just a bit ago, and it included a bit of thunder. Definitely not the thing you expect in Saskatoon in the first week of April. The fact it got to 21 degrees Celsius today no doubt had something to do with it. A bit of rain to damp down the dust will be welcome by some.